New York State of Mind

Let's get fired up for tonight's start of the Red Bulls' Champions League campaign -- their only hope to salvage a disastrous year -- with a few items to consider:

*Midfielder Khano Smith, acquired in preseason from Seattle for allocation money, appeared in eight league matches with six starts. He was waived today. Next up on the flank: Ernst Obster from Austria.

*According to my less-than-MIT math skills, if the Red Bulls were to win their final nine league matches and every other game in MLS ended in a tie (thus depriving teams of a full three points and awarding two overall), they still wouldn't make the playoffs.

Since they are already eliminated from MLS playoff contention (I trust Goff's math skills) the Red Bulls are going to be the first MLS team to field a full-strength team in the CONCACAF Champion's League and a weakened side in their next MLS game.

Not encouraging -- I didn't realize that DCU is really sitting on the bubble. We're outside the automatic berths. We're even with the Gals. Right now we've got one point over Colorado, and we've got two points over Chivas, and we've got 5 points over the Revs. But those teams still have one, two and three games in hand. A tie for Colorado, a win for Chivas, and two wins for NE...DCU will be outside looking in.

*Correction -- we're only one point ahead of Chivas. so they would leap-frog DC with two ties, and the Rapids need to win their game-in-hand to clearly leapfrog over DCU (actually one tie for each team might be enough to do it, because I think Chivas and Rapids may hold the tie-breaker edge).

That's 5 straight home games when we will need them most, coupled with one of the easiest road games you could ask for this season. Not only that, but there are 2 weekends off in there, so even if we get into the CCL, we'll get something approaching an adequate amount of rest. If we don't get into the CCL, I'd demand nothing less than 14 points from this stretch (4 wins, 2 draws).

"Some folks like to get away
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach or Hollywood.
I'm taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line-
I'm in a New York state of mind.

I've seen all the movie stars
In their fancy cars and their limousines
Been high in the Rockies under the evergreens
But I know what I'm needing and I don't want to waste more time-
I'm in a new york state of mind..."

PFC Cherno More Varna inspected the Philips Stadium pitch, ahead of their UEFA Europa League third qualifying round first leg against PSV. A press conference was scheduled to take place after the training, but the meeting was cancelled when it appeared that no Dutch or Bulgarian media representatives had turned up.

Darn FSC, or I bet the same might have happened for the Red Bulls match tonight.

I hate to rain on the parade, but having a dismal team in the nation's largest market is not good for the league. I want the team to suffer, but I want it to suffer in front of 20,000+ fans each week, and in its own ballpark.

I hate to rain on the parade, but having a dismal team in the nation's largest market is not good for the league. I want the team to suffer, but I want it to suffer in front of 20,000+ fans each week, and in its own ballpark.

Posted by: joedoc1

You're not alone joedoc1, while I enjoy seeing NY/NJ suffer, there's no benefit to growing the sport in the US with a team sucking so terribly badly in the major media outlet that is is NY. Alas, same old Metros, always losing.

Huh?!? Unless this is some new permutation of an away-goals rule, if NYRB loses at home, they're out. W-Connection would have more goals, and would win the series. Away-goals is a tiebreaker -- it doesn't trump total goals.

Is there any seeding at this stage? If so, how could it be done meaningfully? Not only do these clubs not face off against each other under normal circumstances, they probably haven't had any mutual opponents in recent years.